


Homecoming

by lilithtorch2



Series: Steadfast Tin Soldier AU [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, F/M, Family, No one is missing a leg but he definitely has a metal (tin?) arm, Steadfast Tin Soldier, slow update
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-22
Updated: 2014-06-09
Packaged: 2018-01-20 08:57:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 5,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1504433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilithtorch2/pseuds/lilithtorch2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha Romanoff breaks into Mr. Gold's shop to retrieve the locket that her lover, James "Bucky" Barnes, had given her before they were separated and he was morphed into the Winter Soldier, with no memories of her or his brothers, Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson.</p><p>[OUAT/Steadfast Tin Soldier AU]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this [prompt](http://jbadgr.tumblr.com/post/82435389059/ah-man-i-rewatched-anastasia-and-i-have-head) by jbadgr
> 
> Also inspired by a dream I had where Dean Winchester needs to use a locket to help his childhood crush/friend (and demon!) remember who he and Sam are before she starts destroying the world.

The woman clad only in black glided through the darkness, her red hair trailing after her. She paused in the middle of the road and looked up to examine the sign in front of her:

“Welcome to Storybrooke.”

The woman kept moving closer into the heart of the town. Her emerald eyes darted around the roads for a few seconds before they honed in on a carousing drunken couple walking toward her. The woman’s mind raced: block, parry, grab an arm, flip them over. She had a concealed pistol; she could easily headshot them if all else failed. She blinked and reminded herself that she didn’t want to draw any attention. Storybrooke was a small town; if one resident heard a shot, everyone would hear it. Besides, based on the way they were dressed, the couple was perfectly harmless. She figured they were newlyweds.

She put her hands over her face and trembled before she stood up straight and continued her march forward. She had to find the building first. She meandered around the pavement before she found it in the corner of an intersection: a small green building with the name “Mr. Gold Pawnbroker & Antiquities Dealer.”

The redhead glanced left and right before she picked the lock to Mr. Gold’s shop.

She looked around her again and entered the building, closing the door behind her. Mr. Gold’s shop was a room filled with trinkets and antiques of all shapes and sizes. She rummaged through every shelf and every cabinet before her nervous fingers reached for a battered looking heart-shaped locket lying innocently in a corner of the backroom.

She opened the heart and held her breath.

The notes came out slowly and the music was out of rhythm, but she could still recognize it. This was indeed her locket, the one her true love had given her before… The woman closed her eyes and allowed herself to shed a single tear.

She was about to get up to leave when she felt a firm grip on her shoulder.

“What, may I ask, is a lady such as yourself doing here at this hour?”

She unsheathed a knife from her boot and stabbed the man in the heart. She got what she needed; it was time to get out of here. But the voice immediately changed inflection and stopped her dead in her tracks.

“Nuh uh uh, dearie!”

She hadn’t heard it in such a long time. At least she still got what she needed. Her fingers clutched tightly at…

Nothing?

The woman whirled around and watched her precious silver locket materialize in the man’s hands in a burst of grey smoke and sighed. “Rumplest-” She narrowed her eyes. “Mr. Gold.”

“Natasha Romanoff.” Mr. Gold bowed before he looked up at her. “Or should I say…Princess Natalia?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sam's brief interaction with Natalia inspired by this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2nD7V8n0JY&list=PLFdg8AFOBih3Pw-kdr7jHSAbgn7TLSkf1) and Anthony Mackie shipping Falcon and BW together

Mr. Gold circled around her menacingly like a vulture waiting to devour its prey. “What are you doing back here? You asked me to make you forget everything about her,” he accused Natasha, “so you could forget everything about _him_.”

* * *

“My friend is in love with you.”

“What?” It was Natalia’s debut and first ball under her official title, “Princess Natalia Alianovna Romanova.” She had been forcing herself to laugh and charm the guests at the ball, who were relatives and friends of her parents, the King and Queen. If Virginia Pepper Potts, her childhood friend and handmaiden, hadn't been standing nearby in case of emergencies, Natalia would have been driven mad by the arduous ordeal of chatting and pretending to be interested. Not that she was bad at it; she just thought it was a waste of time.

But this man who was talking to her was different somehow. Why did he seem so familiar? Then it hit her: she had seen him standing at attention during her carriage ride to the castle. “You’re one of the soldiers!”

“Shh!” The man hushed her. “Sam sent me here to talk to you. See him?” He pointed at the direction of this friend, and Natalia saw someone waving his hands over-enthusiastically while the blonde standing next to him rolled his eyes.

“I don’t know who he is,” Natalia frowned, “am I supposed to?”

“Okay.” The man let out a sigh. “Don’t laugh, he says you two made eye contact when you were eight and it was a ‘forbidden romance for the ages.’”

Natalia stifled a giggle, and the man grinned. “I know, but he believes in it, so…don’t tell him otherwise, okay?”

Here, Natalia sternly crossed her arms. “But how did you all get in here?”

The man ignored her. “I promise you: talking to us will be so much better than talking to these stuffy people. I saw you. Don't deny it; you were bored.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

He was deciding what he should tell her. “Stark. It’s a secret." He put on his best innocent face. "We’re here as his…ah, distant cousins from…Agrabah.”

It wasn’t the cover she was concerned about. “Crown Prince Anthony Edward Stark?” Natalia was incredulous. Crown Prince Anthony Edward Stark was currently schmoozing with members of the royal court. It was unusual for royalty to mingle with members of the lower class and there was nothing in Anthony’s expression that betrayed his friendship with the man talking to her.

“Long story. Come on!” He took Natalia’s hand. How odd, she thought; his grip was as cold as tin. She looked back in Pepper’s direction, but Pepper only smiled in encouragement. He introduced himself and his brothers. “So, I’m Bucky, that’s Steve-” He pointed at the blonde “-and that’s Sam, he-”

Sam had stood up straight and adjusted his shirt. To Steve and Bucky’s snickers, he bowed before Natalia and kissed her hand. “It’s so good to finally see you again,” Sam said, looking up at her, “from the moment I saw you in the town square looking straight at me, I knew we would have a long and sordid love affair. I am so glad I found you again."

Natalia had no idea what he was talking about, but responded in kind and curtsied. “It is good to see you again…Sam.” Bucky and Steve doubled with laughter.

“You had my heart from the moment I met you, princess,” Sam grinned, “I look forward to spending the rest of the night with you.”

Strangely, however, it was Bucky Barnes who spent the rest of the night with Princess Natalia Alianovna Romanov. Steve gave the excuse that Bucky was the best dancer out of all three of them. On the dance floor, they weren’t soldier and princess; they were simply two kindred spirits who enjoyed the magic of the dance.

Afterward, Bucky’s gaze never strayed too far from the direction of the Romanov castle, while Natalia, in kind, would steal a glance outward from her bedroom, in the direction of the soldiers’ quarters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah. It's going to be one of _those_ OUAT episodes...present day, then flashbacks.


	3. Chapter 3

Mr. Gold waved his fingers in the air as if touching Natasha’s memory of the first time she met Bucky. “It was a beautiful memory, wouldn’t you say?”

Natasha fidgeted. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Seeing the memory replayed on the dream catcher brought back emotions she had worked hard to ignore. She needed to act like she was here on a mission.

“Don’t you? Then why did you return?” He gave Natasha a look. “As I recall, you were happily living off in New York City as a dance teacher. We had your memories rewritten the moment you stepped outside the boundary line.”

When Natasha traded her locket in for a life away from her family, she had simply wanted to break free from the memory of death, a freedom she couldn’t even afford when the Evil Queen cursed them all to Storybrooke. Under that life, James was her husband who had been killed in the war, and when the curse was broken, she not only had to remember how James had died, she had to remember how Bucky was killed by the Order of Hydra. She had to remember the same death in two different ways; it was twice the heartache and something she couldn’t take. Without telling anyone except Pepper, Natasha made the deal with Mr. Gold or Rumplestiltskin to get her memories rewritten one last time, with her memories of James and the others completely erased, or, as Sam might have said, to force a happy ending. She kept her heart, though, because removing it wouldn’t have done anything either way.

“You certainly didn’t come here on vacation,” Mr. Gold pointed out.

Having her memories erased should have worked, but Natasha’s life in New York City never made sense and certainly never felt fulfilling. It was like something was missing; no matter where she went, she would always steal a glance in the same direction, as if she were hoping for someone to return, and find herself humming a song she didn’t know the words to. Once, a guy had taken her to see a magic show in the Theater District. It should have gone like any other normal date at a magic show: a rabbit would come out of the hat, a woman would be sawed in half but come out of it whole. Nothing in her past told her that she would react to the magic by finding somewhere to hide and hyperventilating for thirty five minutes. (She'd counted.) To comfort herself, Natasha had even reached for something around her neck that wasn’t even there.

When a man appeared at her doorstep claiming that he was Steve Rogers and that he knew who she really was, she fought him in self-defense, and that was the final sign that something was wrong with her life. She’d only taken a self-defense class once, but it felt as though she’d been taking martial arts classes for years and this man who called himself Steve knew exactly how she fought, claiming that she “fought just like ‘him,’” whoever that was.

Natasha finally responded, “You’re right. I came here because I couldn’t run away.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I present Arnim Zola, in the role of the goblin!
> 
> As to what happened with the King: think King Leoric. Let's hope Bucky's fate was sliiiiightly better than Lachdanan's

“We have to run away.”

Bucky blocked one of Natalia’s punches. Since her last attempted kidnapping, Bucky decided it was best to train her to be a soldier/fighter so she could buy herself time, if not defeat her attackers. She was getting good at it too. Natalia noticed for a flicker of a second that Bucky was distracted and tried to kick him in the leg. Instead of tripping like she expected him to, Bucky dodged her kick and slammed her into the ground. Their eyes met before she pushed him away from her and got up, resuming her defensive position.

“You didn’t tell me you wanted to elope.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Natalia gave Bucky a small smile before he kicked her. She fell backward before catching her fall and leaped onto Bucky’s shoulders, using her legs to flip him to the ground. When she turned to face him again, she was ready to fight, but Bucky had dusted himself off and motioned for their match to end. He handed her a stick of freshly cooked rabbit meat. When she devoured it hungrily, Bucky teased Natalia with, “That’s not very princess-like of you, Nat,” before she playfully elbowed him in response.

“So what’s wrong?”

Natalia snuggled against Bucky’s shoulders and felt his metal arm wrap around her. “That’s just it: I don’t know.” Natalia focused on the stick of rabbit meat. “Papa has become…stranger since Mother passed away.” The Queen had died under ‘mysterious circumstances’ just a few months ago. Since her death, the King had transformed from a boisterous, kindly man to a gaunt, broken soul.

“I noticed that, too.” Bucky would normally have attributed the King’s transformation to grief, but he had heard rumors that the King had begun executing the kingdom’s inhabitants if they dared speak any word against him. This was unlike the just and unbiased King he had known growing up. “I’ll talk to Steve and Sam. We’ll look into it.”

“Bucky…I’m worried.” She kissed him.

“Me, too.” Bucky kissed her back before he procured something from his pockets. “I got this for you. It was supposed to be your engagement present, but considering what you just said, I-”

“Engagement?!”

Bucky was flustered. “I originally wanted the King’s approval before I married his precious daughter…we’ve been together for _years_ …and it was _supposed_ to be a surprise-”

Natalia grinned. “Are you asking me to marry you, James Buchanan Barnes?”

“I mean I was going to wait and-”

“Of _course_ I’ll marry you!”

“You didn’t even look at the present.” Bucky pouted. “I worked hard for this!” His hands opened up to reveal a heart-shaped locket. “Open it.”

Natalia opened the locket and heard the innocent notes pouring from it. “It’s beautiful.”

“It’s yours. It’s my promise to you: no matter what happens, this is how we’ll find each other, okay?” They hugged each other and both said, “Because we always find each other” before breaking down into laughter.

When Bucky brought her back to the castle, they were ambushed by a group of soldiers, who pushed Natalia aside and pointed their bayonets at Bucky. Bucky tensed; he was ready to fight if he needed to.

“What are you doing?! He did nothing wrong!” Natalia kicked the soldier holding her back and pushed her way through to Bucky. Her fingers found his and she clung tightly to them, refusing to let go. She saw Sam and Steve running up to the soldiers and asking what was going on.

“Sir James Buchanan Barnes,” one of the men read, “you are hereby arrested for treason and attempted kidnapping.”

“Attempted kidnapping?!” Natalia touched the locket hanging from her neck. “I am Princess Natalia Alianovna Romanov and I insist that there was no ‘attempted kidnapping!’ I left of my own accord. Ask my Father. Besides, James Barnes rescued me from my _last_ attempted kidnapping.”

The man looked guilty. “I’m sorry, my lady, King’s orders.”

Natalia’s eyes widened; how sick had her father become? The soldiers parted to make way for the King. Everyone present bowed; only Natalia, Steve, Sam and Bucky remained standing. Natalia tensed and pulled Bucky closer to her. “Father, _what_ are you doing?”

“He is poisoning your mind, sweet daughter,” the King said, but his voice was not his. His eyes were lifeless and Natalia wondered if her father had long been dead.

And behind the King stood his most trusted advisor, Arnim Zola.

“Sir Barnes,” Zola said smugly, “I _did_ warn you to stay away from the princess, did I not?”


	5. Chapter 5

“You should have stayed away from this place.” Mr. Gold chided Natasha. “You had such a good life in New York City.”

“As I said,” Natasha insisted, “I couldn’t stay away.”

“Are you sure you’re ready for your own family to see you as you really are: a broken little girl who left them because she was scared?”

It was true; she left them all behind when she believed Bucky to be dead. She had thought it was better to stay away from her family so that they wouldn’t end up with Bucky’s fate. It had been far too much death. She only returned because Steve told her that Bucky needed her help; she didn’t question what that meant.

“Was coming back here for your steadfast tin soldier, ballerina, truly worth it?”

Natasha’s angry green eyes dared to peer into Mr. Gold’s. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“He’s changed; it’s not pretty at all, dearie. Your family came to me for help, but I can’t undo the curse the Order of the Hydra put on him. His memories twist and contort and sometimes they find their way back…

“And sometimes they don’t. You remember what happened to your dear father?”

Natasha closed her eyes and shuddered, recalling what the Order had done to him. Did they do that to Bucky, too?

Mr. Gold’s expression softened. “Why don't you go to your family first? They need you."

What he didn't have to say was that Natasha needed them too.

The next morning, Natasha stepped through the familiar doors to Granny’s Diner and scanned the area for Pepper. If she remembered correctly, Pepper and Tony would visit the diner every morning for breakfast. She didn’t know how Pepper would react; was she going to slap her and scream and shout?

“Oh, my god. Nat!”

Pepper ran up to Natasha and hugged her. Natasha had expected Pepper to be furious, but her friend was only relieved. She relaxed into Pepper’s embrace and patted her on the back.

“I didn’t think you’d come back!”

“Me neither.” Natasha muttered. She looked behind Pepper to find Tony looking down at a plate of sausage and scrambled eggs and deliberately avoiding her gaze. “How’s Tony doing?”

Pepper only shook her head and grabbed Natasha by the hand. “Come sit with us. We have a lot to catch up on!” They joined Tony at the table while Natasha told them – mostly to Pepper, Tony seemed distracted – where she’d been.

“Steve said Bucky needed help, but I thought he was dead…”

“We all did.” Tony dug deeper into his untouched food while Pepper spoke. Everyone thought Bucky had long been dead, but he’d just appeared out of nowhere some time after Natasha left for New York City. Her voice grew anxious when she insinuated that someone must have revived him. Natasha was sure that Pepper was leaving out details, because she kept glancing back at Tony.

“But…what happened to him? Rumpl-Mr. Gold said his mind isn’t…working?”

This was the only time Tony spoke up. “It wasn’t his fault.”

“What are you talking about? What did Bucky do?”

“It wasn’t his fault.” Tony repeated, burying his face in his hands. He was shaking his head as if trying to wake up from a nightmare. "It wasn't."

“It’s better if you see it for yourself, Nat.” Pepper suggested. She squeezed Tony’s hand before she and Natasha left for the hospital.


	6. Chapter 6

Natalia Alianovna Romanova watched as Bucky Barnes was dragged off into the dungeons to the protest of Sam, Steve, and the civilians around them. She refused to passively accept that this would be Bucky’s fate. She confronted her father. “He is only showing me how to protect myself! Why-”

For a minute, her father’s ghostly expression returned to one that she recognized. “I know.” As soon as he said so, he clutched at his heart in pain and his face became hollow again. “Daughter…he is too dangerous to be around. You must stay away from him. He is planning to take you away from me.”

It was the monotone in her father’s voice that bothered her. Somehow, the man standing before her looked like the father she knew, but he didn’t always act like he was. She was helpless; whatever her father was going through was his to fight alone. “What’s wrong?”

The King struggled with himself, covering his ears with his hands. He took deep, slow breaths before finally responding, “Nothing is wrong.” He blinked and looked around him, as if seeing everything for the first time.

“What did Archbishop Zola mean when he said he’d warned the soldier to stay away from me?”

The King’s weary eyes focused on her. “I don’t know.” He put his hands against his ears again as if to quiet the voices in his head. “I don’t know!” He closed his eyes tight and the next thing Natalia knew, her own father had forcefully pulled her by the arm. “But he is a traitor who needs to be-” The King covered his ears again.

“Tell me what he’s done wrong. Please.”

“You dare challenge me?!” His eyes were wild. The next thing Natalia knew, her own father had grabbed her by the shoulders and shaken her violently.

“Father…you’re hurting me.” Natalia pleaded.

The King paused. He gave her a look of terror before he let go of Natalia and rushed back into the castle.

A week later, Arnim Zola declared that the King had fallen ill; he would be taking on the King’s duties. The first order of business: all traitors would be executed, beginning with James Buchanan Barnes. Natalia was furious; now the true colors of the Archbishop were revealed. He had wanted to usurp the throne for himself.

“Where is the king?” Someone protested, and Zola had the man captured for his question.

“The King has appointed me to take his place.” Arnim Zola repeated patiently, and Natalia wanted to hurt him. “Bring out the traitor!”

Pepper put a hand on her shoulder; now was not the time. They would only be playing into Zola’s hands. Natalia looked down from the balcony to find a pair of soldiers hauling Bucky, with his hands tied, to the center of the field. The crowd had formed a circle around them. One of the soldiers kicked him down to the dirt floor, but he got back up and glared in the direction of Archbishop Zola. He was not going to be humiliated. The executioner next to him had other ideas, and kicked him in the legs. Bucky kneeled.

To the sound of uproar, Zola cried, “You are all warned: the crime of treason is punishable by death!”

Bucky refused to look down at the ground and stared resolutely ahead of him. He didn’t even close his eyes.

The sunlight reflected on the executioner’s blade and Natalia screamed, leaping off the balcony and onto the ground below.

“Princess Natalia!” Pepper cried.

As she ran toward Bucky, she heard the sound of metal clanging and saw that Steve had blocked the blade with his shield and Sam was wiping off blood from his mouth. Sam had knocked down some of the soldiers and freed Bucky from his shackles. When the executioner and the soldiers prepared to fight the trio, their weapons disappeared in a cloud of gray smoke and the protests of the civilians became one single, unified gasp.

There was a giggle.

Sitting atop a pile of weapons was a man with dusty-gold skin and an impish grin.

“Not today,” he sang, wagging his finger at the confused soldiers. Turning toward the direction of balcony, he called out to Zola:

“I have a counteroffer!”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made edits but otherwise the plot is unchanged

Natasha had expected Bucky’s room to be in one of the upper floors of Storybrooke General Hospital. Instead, she and Pepper were walking through long and winding corridors, past busy doctors and anxious nurses. She was forced to hear the echoes of their footsteps as they walked along. Every step reminded her that she had abandoned her family to live her life elsewhere. Each one dared her to turn back and escape to the safety of New York again.

Pepper had to be wrong. There was no way Bucky was still alive. They all felt him die; she could barely escape the Order of the Hydra because of it. How did he even come back?

He couldn’t be alive, but Steve had told her that Bucky needed her. Steve couldn't have been lying to her. Not about this.

Natasha wondered if she’d find Steve and Sam by Bucky’s side (if that was really him). Steve had come to New York City for her, but she hadn’t seen Sam since she left for New York. What would Sam say to her? She was sure that it wouldn’t be anything kind; after all, she had only left behind a message for Mr. Gold to tell the others.

She and Pepper found themselves in front of the exit door. The orderly let them through, and they walked to Bucky's room.

“Hey, Pep…” Steve turned around to face them as soon as he heard their footsteps. When he saw Nat, his eyes widened and he quickly got up to hug her. “You decided to come back.”

“I decided to come back.” Natasha looked past Steve in the direction of Sam and a man with disheveled, long hair. “Is that…him? Is that really Bucky?”

The man was looking straight at her but Natasha couldn’t tell if he recognized her at all; his blue eyes were as cold as the winter snow. He looked so much like Bucky, but he was nothing like the vibrant young soldier she remembered.

They were interrupted by a loud sigh; Sam had stood up from his chair to face Natasha. He crossed his arms. “You’d know it was him,” Sam scolded her, “if you had never left in the first place.” He narrowed his eyes at her before sadly glancing over in Bucky's direction. "Steve, I'm waiting outside." He pushed past Natasha while Pepper chased after him, protesting that Natasha didn't know what happened.

“You came at a good time, Nat. He’s been quieter this week.” Steve explained, ignoring Sam and Pepper’s hushed argument outside the room. He searched for something positive to say. “Bucky has been eating more.”

The man’s blue eyes focused on Natasha’s. “How did he…come back?” Natasha asked, unsure if she really wanted to know the truth.

“He just showed up one day. It was some time after you left. Someone modified Dr. Whale’s experimental procedure. That’s all I know.” Steve's lower lip trembled. “Sam and I managed to track him down, but we..." His face fell.

"But what?" She felt the pit in her stomach.

"Natalia...." Steve put a firm hand on her shoulder. "They're dead."

And somehow, Natalia knew, making the connection between Tony's expression at the diner earlier and what Steve had just said. "No," she choked out, putting a hand to her lips. "No, no, no, no...."

"You're pretty." A cool voice interrupted them, and Natalia's eyes turned to the man. She had been through this once before; it shouldn't hurt so much. Natasha reached out to the man to comfort him but Steve stopped her. Suddenly, the man screamed, asking them to make an invisible man stop repeating the same words over and over to him.

“Don’t.” Steve warned. “Give him time.”

The man suddenly stopped. He reached out toward Natasha's neck, where her locket would have been. She saw a glimmer of the old Bucky in the man's tired eyes as he did so and without thinking, she kissed him.

Nothing. No magic like what Steve and Sharon had, no earth-shattering glimmer of golden dust.

Bucky did not remember her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! Here is an extra chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

“What would your counteroffer be, Dark One?” Zola asked.

“We put him to the test.” The Dark One circled around Bucky and Natalia and giggled. “If he is truly guilty, as you claim he is, he will fail.”

“I’m not guilty of anything,” Bucky muttered.

Natalia glared menacingly at the Dark One. “What are you trying to do?”

“All we have is your word against Zola’s,” the Dark One reminded Bucky. Out loud, he added, “And if this man is not guilty, he will return.”

Zola paled at the Dark One’s words. “I cannot allow this.”

“ _You_ may not be able to, but there is one person who can.”

“Look! The King!” Someone pointed out, and the crowd gasped and bowed in reverence. Archbishop Zola whirled around. Stuttering, he bowed his head as well.

“I have recovered.” The King insisted.

“But I saw you." Zola protested. "You were sick, I- we-”

The crowd protested Bucky’s punishment, deeming it unfair, but with a wave of his hand, the King silenced them. Natalia observed him carefully. He was truly the dear and loving father she remembered, but his face had become pale and gaunt. Even so, he stood up straight and carried himself regally, as if he had never been sick in his life. He did not cover his ears this time, but Natalia could see that he was trying to regain control of himself.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” Natalia whispered to Bucky, pressing closer to him.

“Yeah.” Bucky gulped. “I love you.” His fingers searched for hers.

“I love you, too.”

As for the King, he only said, “Sir James Buchanan Barnes is to be execu-” Zola looked at the King hopefully, but the King clenched his jaw and coughed again before composing himself. “ _Excuse me._ Sir James Buchanan Barnes shall be put to the test, as the Dark One says.” He clenched his fists and closed his eyes before he turned to Bucky. “Defeat the serpent that lives there, and you shall go free.”

Zola was surprised. “My King, you cannot do this-“

Natalia agreed with Zola on this. So did the crowd; they knew who Bucky was and could not understand why the gentle King they had once known would punish the soldier this way. Natalia worried for her father; he was looking at her helplessly as he spoke, but she did not know who was really speaking now. Was it really her father, or was someone else speaking through him? Maybe it was both? What was he trying to do? It crushed her heart to see her father deteriorate like this and to see Bucky sentenced to death.

There was nothing she could do.

Was this really the Dark One’s only counteroffer to Archbishop Zola? How would that help Bucky? Why was he grinning?

“The King has spoken, Zola,” the Dark One said, “do you dare go against him, Archbishop?”

“No, of course not,” Zola stammered, “I would never do that! My King, you know this to be true!”

“Then,” the Dark One declared, disappearing in a flash of smoke, “his word is final! The test shall begin in seven days!”

* * *

 “Dark One!” Natalia angrily called out in her bedchambers, looking around her. “Dark One, I summon thee!”

“Calling out my name would suff-“

Natalia ran toward him and pummeled the Dark One in the chest. “How could you do that to him? How could you!” He could curse her or kill her for all she cared. Nothing else mattered.

Oddly enough, the Dark One did not move. He could easily have vanished and never returned, but he waited until she was done to speak. “Consider: your most trusted Archbishop was ready to have your lover executed.”

“How did you know he was my-”

The mischievous voice became somber. “I was human, once.”

“But why would you even help him? You don’t even know Bucky.”

“I owed your father a debt.” The Dark One explained impatiently. “And you are his daughter. Princess, when I saw him he had already become another person. I did as much as I could to undo the curse Zola put on him but…” His face fell. “He is still very sick.”

“So Zola did do something…” Natalia recalled how her father physically struggled to maintain control and appear to his people as if he were completely healthy.

“That was the best I could do.” He sighed. “I’m sorry. But remember this, Princess: before his mind fell apart again, your father told me that he trusts the soldier.”

“I-“ If her father truly trusted Bucky, then why put him to the test? Unless… something about it was connected to how her father had been cursed?

“I have bought you and your family more _time_." The Dark One reminded her. "Use it wisely."


End file.
